Product Description

This book is a profound re-examination of the role of the German army, the Wehrmacht, in World War II. Until very recently, the standard story avowed that the ordinary German soldier in World War II was a good soldier, distinct from Hitler's rapacious SS troops, and not an accomplice to the massacres of civilians. Wolfram Wette, a pre-eminent German military historian, explodes the myth of a "clean" Wehrmacht with devastating clarity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #107356 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Review
Over the last twenty years various scholars, from the pioneering work of Omer Bartov to the more recent work of Ben Shepherd and a host of American and German scholars, have demonstrated that the view of a "Wehrmacht" with "clean hands" is entirely mistaken. These studies have shown that "average" German soldiers were completely capable of and willing to commit the worst atrocities imaginable. This book is another contribution to that corpus. Thus far the focus has been on explaining how and why the typical "Landser" became capable of mass murder, but this book is not about the average soldier's descent into barbarism. It is rather a study of the path trod by the commanding officers: the field marshals, generals, and colonels who formulate policy and created an environment in which mass murder could occur. As such, this book complements earlier studies by focusing on the highest levels of the "Wehrmacht". Wette demonstrates that this level of command not only knew about and approved of mass murder but, after the war, successfully created the myth that the "Wehrmacht" had played no role in the crimes committed during the war. -- Lee Baker "Journal of Military History" (10/01/2006)

About the Author
Wolfram Wette is Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Freiburg, Germany.

Customer Reviews

All About The German Army
The Wehrmacht History, Myth, Reality is a must for each and every serious WW2 Re-Enactor.

It tells what the German soldier got up to during the War.
Without this book to refer to, you won't be able you can't call yourself a re-enactor.

Buy it, it's a must for anyone interested in the much vaunted honour, chivalry, esprit de corps, gallantry, professionalism.
Learn how far German soldiers distanced themselves from the Nazi Party and the fearsome SS.
An Absolute Goldmine of WW2 History.

An ideal Present for anyone interested in WW2

'Clean hands' myth refuted
An enduring myth of WWII, and especially of the fighting on the Eastern Front, is that the Wehrmacht concerned themselves with 'clean' fighting whilst 'Nazi' organizations such as the SS, Gestapo and Einsatzgruppen were responsible for 'stern measures' : a euphemism for mass murder.

This excellent, thoughtful study ( by a German historian and first published in Germany ) considers the extent to which the Wehrmacht were aware of, and in many cases complicit in, such actions. The author places German anti-Semitism and militarism in the context of German history to demonstrate the ways in which Nazism perpetuated and exploited existing attitudes and prejudices.

This book is in no way a 'popular' work - it is more academic ; but I'd recommend it highly to anyone who seriously wishes to think - hard - about lessons to be learned from WWII.

I must say that I completely fail to see how this work would appeal to the 're-enactor' - unless, of course, it would cause a re-enactor to question whether they would wish to perpetuate the image of those who massacred, by shooting, nearly 34,000 civilians in a small ravine near Kiev - in just two days.